The Other Planets CD Release

The Other Planets
The following article is featured in the December issue of Antigravity Magazine by Leo McGovern.  Visit the Antigravity website for more information or to download the latest issue.

The Other Planets certainly aren't the first artists to take jazz, toss in some rock riffs and off-the-wall instrumentation and make some racket, but since they're based in New Orleans, the land where traditional jazz rules, they earn automatic points for their balls alone. When you factor in the fact that they're actually good? Well, that makes for interesting listening. Eightballs In Anglola, the Planets' first studio album in nearly two years, picks up where '05's Discrete Manipulations left off, namely with tightly written jazz songs accentuated by xylophone play, noisemaking and some hooks thrown in for good measure. Think Frank Zappa mixed with Drums & Tuba and an upbeat Chef Menteur. Eightballs is an amazingly even album in terms of quality, which is an accomplishment considering its tracks move between the styles of more traditional jazz, funk and electronica, and that attribute is both good and bad. What's good is no track is worse than another, but that consistency comes at a price—there's no standout track, like "Will You Adhere?" was to Manipulations. Sure, traditional jazz will always be around, but it's nice to know that groups like the Other Planets are playing with the concept and making an interesting, well-conceived mess of it.

ANTIGRAVITY sat down with the Planet who has the most instruments to his name, Anthony Cuccia, to talk Eightballs.

ANTIGRAVITY: How long have you guys been around and how'd you get together?
Anthony Cuccia: The Other Planets began as The Planets, which was started by Tim McFatter, Jeff Hebert, and myself in the early part of 2003. We wrote a few tunes, the first one being "Living In Harmony With Fuel Efficient Machinery," which ended up on our first record. I heard Jimbo Walsh playing piano backstage at a Naked Orchestra show (he's the conductor), and we started talking about music and I asked him to join the band. We rehearsed a lot and wrote more tunes and started taking it more and more seriously. Then one day, I read in the paper that this band from the UK was getting sued by the estate of John Cage for using silence in one of their pieces. They were called "The Planets." So, we became "The Other Planets."

AG: Eightballs In Anglola has been a long time in the making—how long has it been in the works, exactly, and why'd it take so long to finish?
AC: We started some of the basic tracks for this record about a month after we finished our first album, Discrete Manipulations, in 2005. So, it's been in the works for about a year and a half. Part of the problem with finishing it up was the hurricane. Our drummer, Quin Kirchner, our sometimes bassist Matt Golambisky, and our vibraphonist Matt McClimon moved to Chicago about a month after the storm. Some of the sessions were done at "Big Brown," our studio in Henderson, La. Some of the tracks were done in Chicago, with a few sessions up there and a lot down here at our place. Aside from that, we really just took our time because we wanted to add a lot of different instruments and textures. Like, on "Oranges and Bananas," we used organ, synth, acoustic guitar, electric slide, electric bass, keyboard bass, tuba, tenor sax, three baritone saxes, bass sax, congas, glockenspeil, samplers, tambourines, and drums. It was a big project and took a while to fully realize.

AG: You guys actually have another album in the works—Is that one Eightballs, Part II, or a different concept?
AC: The new record is not at all like Eightballs In Anglola. It's called Music from Big Brown, and it is entirely improvisational. It was recorded live at Big Brown with an eight-piece version of the band and featured all of the Chicago faction plus Will A. Thompson IV in keyboards. The full instrumentation is drums, percussion, electric guitar, bass sax, tenor sax, baritone sax, vibraphone, sampler, electric bass, and two keyboards. So, there is full group improvisation, duos, trios, and everything in between. It has a lot of electronics on it and and also a lot of acoustic instruments. It goes everywhere from mellow textural improvisations to full blown nuclear death noise to syncopated groove sections. I'm pretty happy with it. It's recorded and mixed, and it probably won't be long before its out now, that Eightballs is done.

AG: Many long-time residents of Mid-City would recognize the amplified voice at the beginning of the album. Tell us a bit about the voice's owner and why you used it.
AC: The voice is that of Arthur Robertson, the mobile fruit vendor in Mid-City with a loud speaker. My friend Doug recorded that sample with his cell phone while outside of Fair Grinds on Ponce de Leon, in May of 2005, I think. He'd play it off of his phone in bars and coffee shops and stuff, because he had it set as his cell phone ring. So, that's where we got it. When Katrina hit, everyone from The Other Planets was staying in Lafayette, Doug kept playing that sample from his phone, and it would always shake up the room and cause some sparks. Arthur Robertson was actually featured in an article in the last issue of the Time Picayune before the hurricane, so he was definately on our minds. We were all wondering, and still are, what happened to him and where he is (even though I've never met him). We recorded this song in October of '05 at Jimbo's new house in Henderson, La, and it became an important piece for us, because it was meant as kind of a dreamy dirge about the flood. The sound of the fruit vendor gave the song a literal connection to New Orleans.

AG: Do you get any feedback from listeners of "traditional" jazz? What do they think about The Other Planets?
AC: Jazz musicians like us, I think. I don't know, I guess I really don't care how a traditional musician or an avant-garde musician or classical or rock musician or this critic or that critic views our music. Fuck that. We create sounds that we want to hear for our own pleasure and personal evolution. Besides, every member of this band should be considered a "player of traditional jazz." Everyone in this group plays gigs like that on the side. Dan "The Diesel Rocket" Oestreicher, who is by far the most insane and raucus member of the band on stage, plays with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. So, I don't know...

AG: Is the feedback you guys get in other parts of the country different than what you get in New Orleans?
AC: Well, we did some gigs in Chicago twice this year, and got a really good reaction. That scene is really open to experimentation. Sometimes, New Orleans isn't. We're going back there again for some gigs in December. We're performing at the Eyes & Ears Festival on the 16th. Matt Golambisky's Tomorrow Music Orchestra is performing our music with us, so it will be a twenty-one-piece version of The Other Planets. People up there dig us. Recently, though, we've been getting a really good reaction from crowds in New Orleans. Our recent shows at King Bolden's and The Dragon's Den have been well-attended on the basis of word of mouth, so things are looking better at home.

AG: Any particular thing you're looking forward to doing once the record is officially released?
AC: We've got a batch of new songs that are ready to record. When we go up to Chicago we're going to do a session and get started on what will be the fourth Other Planets record. Also, just playing lots of live shows and trying to get on the road. We've incorporated dancers into our show now. They'll be with us at Republic. And Zack Smith is going to be doing some more projection for us, which is exciting. He did a video for "Walking Porno Zombie Pt. 2" and I'm hoping that we're going to do more videos with him. Just keep it going and try to pull more compositions and improvisations out of the air. When the first record came out, Jimbo and I agreed that we would try to put out at least one record a year as The Other Planets until 2010. So, that's the plan.

Check out a photo gallery of a recent performance by The Other Planets at Republic New Orleans!